public Column(HeaderCell headerCell,
    Cell currentCell,
    Row parentRow) 
{
        this.header = headerCell;
        this.row = parentRow;
        this.cell = currentCell;
        // also copy html attributes
        this.htmlAttributes = headerCell.getHtmlAttributes();
}

Constructor for Column.

Parameters:

headerCell - HeaderCell

currentCell - Cell

parentRow - Row

 public String createChoppedAndLinkedValue() throws DecoratorException, ObjectLookupException 
{
        String fullValue = ObjectUtils.toString(getValue(true));
        String choppedValue;
        // trim the string if a maxLength or maxWords is defined
        if (this.header.getMaxLength()  > 0)
        {
            choppedValue = HtmlTagUtil.abbreviateHtmlString(fullValue, this.header.getMaxLength(), false);
        }
        else if (this.header.getMaxWords()  > 0)
        {
            choppedValue = HtmlTagUtil.abbreviateHtmlString(fullValue, this.header.getMaxWords(), true);
        }
        else
        {
            choppedValue = fullValue;
        }
        // chopped content? add the full content to the column "title" attribute
        // note, simply checking that length is less than before can't be enough due to the "..." added if the string is
        // cropped
        if (!ObjectUtils.equals(fullValue, choppedValue))
        {
            // clone the attribute map, don't want to add title to all the columns
            this.htmlAttributes = (HtmlAttributeMap) this.htmlAttributes.clone();
            // add title
            this.htmlAttributes.put(TagConstants.ATTRIBUTE_TITLE, HtmlTagUtil.stripHTMLTags(fullValue));
        }
        if (this.header.getHref() != null)
        {
            // generates the href for the link
            Href colHref = getColumnHref(fullValue);
            Anchor anchor = new Anchor(colHref, choppedValue);
            choppedValue = anchor.toString();
        }
        return choppedValue;
}

Calculates the cell content, cropping or linking the value as needed.

 public String getChoppedAndLinkedValue() 
{
        return this.stringValue;
}

get the final value to be displayed in the table. This method can only be called after initialize(), where the content is evaluated

 public String getCloseTag() 
{
        this.stringValue = null;
        return this.header.getCloseTag();
}

Generates the cell close tag (</td>).

 public HeaderCell getHeaderCell() 
{
        return this.header;
}

Get the header cell for this column.

 public String getOpenTag() 
{
        HtmlAttributeMap rowAttributes = cell.getPerRowAttributes();
        HtmlAttributeMap atts = htmlAttributes;
        if (rowAttributes != null)
        {
            atts = (HtmlAttributeMap) atts.clone();
            atts.putAll(rowAttributes);
        }
        return HtmlTagUtil.createOpenTagString(TagConstants.TAGNAME_COLUMN, atts);
}

Generates the cell open tag.

 public Object getValue(boolean decorated) throws DecoratorException, ObjectLookupException 
{
        Object object = null;
        // a static value has been set?
        if (this.cell.getStaticValue() != null)
        {
            object = this.cell.getStaticValue();
        }
        else if (this.header.getBeanPropertyName() != null)
        {
            // if a decorator has been set, and if decorator has a getter for the requested property only, check
            // decorator
            if (decorated
                && this.row.getParentTable().getTableDecorator() != null
                && this.row.getParentTable().getTableDecorator().hasGetterFor(this.header.getBeanPropertyName()))
            {
                object = LookupUtil.getBeanProperty(this.row.getParentTable().getTableDecorator(), this.header
                    .getBeanPropertyName());
            }
            else
            {
                // else check underlining object
                object = LookupUtil.getBeanProperty(this.row.getObject(), this.header.getBeanPropertyName());
            }
        }
        DisplaytagColumnDecorator[] decorators = this.header.getColumnDecorators();
        if (decorated)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j <  decorators.length; j++)
            {
                object = decorators[j].decorate(object, row.getParentTable().getPageContext(), row
                    .getParentTable()
                    .getMedia());
            }
        }
        if (object == null || "null".equals(object)) //$NON-NLS-1$
        {
            if (!this.header.getShowNulls())
            {
                object = TagConstants.EMPTY_STRING;
            }
        }
        return object;
}

Gets the value, after calling the table / column decorator is requested.

 public  void initialize() throws DecoratorException, ObjectLookupException 
{
        if (this.stringValue == null)
        {
            this.stringValue = createChoppedAndLinkedValue();
        }
}

Initialize the cell value.

 public String toString() 
{
        return new ToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.SHORT_PREFIX_STYLE) //
            .append("cell", this.cell) //$NON-NLS-1$
            .append("header", this.header) //$NON-NLS-1$
            .append("htmlAttributes", this.htmlAttributes) //$NON-NLS-1$
            .append("stringValue", this.stringValue) //$NON-NLS-1$
            .toString();
}